Wow, I have my first duck egg pipping! I should have one duckling tomorrow. We have 4 eggs under a broody hen but one of the eggs has got cracked so we put nail varnish on so i've got my fingers crossed for that one. Carole if we hacth them out you must bring Ben to see them.




Maxine

Well we had two ducklings so far and i will get photos for you too see soon but dont want to distrube mum too much. the first one died before it hatched out fully but the other two are going strong. We dont thin the other one will hatch out but time will tell



Maxine

these where hatched today thursday 16th August .








This one first about 11am and this one second at lunch time

Maxine

Well they did well over night and i managed to get some snaps of them eating and not snuggled down with mum the hen!

As you can see they are doing well and this was their first trip outside their nest box today with mum snuffles the chicken.

As you can see the are on my lawn inside the run now. They have spent all afternoon on the grass.

well the duckling are growing and doing well. I will post new photos so everyone can see how much they have grown. Unfortunally my neighbours dog has chewed through our fence so i have moved them off the lawn into the back bit away from the hole until they buy a new fence pannel. I do miss not seeing them through the consevatory window.

Hi Maxine,

The ducklings are gorgeous. What lovely photos - yes please keep posting them - it'll be interesting to see how they grow & develop. Well - I'm glad the neighbours dog only chewed the fence & not the ducklings!!

I told Ben about your ducklings & your other animals & he would love to come & see them sometime. Pity we weren't able to do that during the week before he went on holiday to Bulgaria & he'll be back at school when he comes home. He's away for another week yet - oooh missing him!!

As promised new pictures of them taken yesterday 2nd Septmeber 2007 and it was hard to get close and even harder to catch them. Just coming to three weeks old now.

awww just look at them!! aren't they growing!! thanks for keeping us informed Maxine - its great to follow their progress. Have they got names yet? Will the Hen who is looking after them think that they are going to grow into hens? :ck-hrrmm: or does she realise they are a bit different to her usual broods!! I was just thinking - she might wonder what its all about when they start wanting to swim!! (I'm visualising her going paddling through the pond to them!! like this............ ho ho ho)


Looking forward to the next photos of them Maxine, thanks so much.

Carole

Nope they have not got names as yet. With never breading this type of duck before i'm not sure on the sex of them.. i went to the farm to look at the parents and i think we have ducks and not drakes.
Mum seems to have an easy life with these campared to chicks. They sit together whilst she now goes off and finds herself and them food, where the chicks would not have left her side. I am waiting for her to leave them now and go back to the coop with the rest of the hens. But at the moment when they are all out together she still goes running to them if they call her.
I must put on new pictures i took last week.
Ducks love water but even though they tend to throw water over themselves by their beaks they have shown no intrest in getting in as they have acess to water to swim in.

6th and 7th September 2007



Look how big they have got




I put this one in as it was day 1 so you can see how small they where as its the same food dish....




Lee has just said tonight they have got big from when he saw then 3-4 days ago so i must get new photos now...

I was browsing through all these smith chats and saw the heading ducklings and just had to take a look, they are gorgeous. Small world isnt it ? A couple of years ago we raised some ducklings in our garden too. We have an allotment and found the babies outside our place ,their mum had been got by a fox so we brought them home. Great fun. Beemnut

One of our friends has a farm and the foxes had away with several of the ducks. I had a broody hen so step mum she became and a wonderful one she is.
That reminds me to go and more the bead curtin so i can take some photos of them this week. They have taken to sitting on the mat outside the conservatory door.

Photos took 18/09/07